20 Horror Movies That Fall Apart In The Final Act
16. The Pale Blue Eye
The Pale Blue Eye, a horror-mystery about detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) teaming up with a young Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling) to investigate a series of murders at a military academy, joins the long list of initially promising movies ruined by a bad plot twist. You'll see a few others further along this list.
We all love a good twist, but it's far better to play things straight than to ruin everything with a contrived reveal that negates the preceding film altogether. A twist just for the sake of it is no good at all, as The Pale Blue Eye reaffirms. Prior to the third act, this is an absolutely solid mystery with two dynamite lead turns from Christian Bale and Harry Melling in particular, and it was so frustrating to watch the movie implode in the final stretch.
While the murders initially seem to have been committed by a family practicing dark magic, Poe subsequently deduces that Landor killed the soldiers instead. The three victims had assaulted his daughter, leading to her suicide, and he was seeking revenge.
To give credit where it's due, this was an ambitious twist, but it just didn't work overall. It negated the rest of the story by suddenly making the main character the villain, and it felt more like a smug attempt to seem clever than anything else.